


metaphors at four am

by trashworks00



Category: Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, everyone’s kinda OOC in this one, i actually don’t know what I’m doing, not that much angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:14:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24612112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashworks00/pseuds/trashworks00
Summary: The stars, the sun, and two teenagers fed up with life.
Relationships: Dekomori Sanae/Nibutani Shinka
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	1. Nibutani looses her cat

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s some mood music:
> 
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

“They’ve spotted him in the park. Me and your father are way too tired. Could you get him for us please? “

Nibutani roller her eyes. “Mom, it’s like 2 am, I’m not going anywhere.” 

Her brother Aito had left the door open and their cat, Shiro, had took the oppurtunity and run out. They’d spent all evening searching for him. 

“It is four am.” Her mother argued “but you’re not asleep, are you?” 

Nibutani knew there was no way out of this. 

~~~~

To anyone else, her mother would be seen as merciless and cruel, but she knew that her brother was going to throw another tantrum if Shiro wasn’t at his room in the morning. Besides, she could always skip school tomorrow. So she wasn’t angry at her mom. She was angry at that goddamn cat. 

So here she was, in the park, at four am. 

The cold breeze of the park slapped all the sleepiness out of her body. She cursed under her breath. “Why can’t Aito go? After all he’s the one responsible? So what if he’s just five?” 

She took a deep breath in and started calling Shiro’s name in a sing-song way. The stars and lights in the park was dim, so she could barely see anything. It was going to be a while.

~~~~~~

After about 15 minutes of searching, Nibutani had decided that the cat was not here, the park was fairly small and there were not that many trees, and there was no other places to hide. 

She spotted a bench and sat down. She threw her head back in exhaustion, letting it rest on the bench. “Where could that cat have gone?” She whispered to no one. 

She turned her head to the right and stifled a loud shriek and in doing so stood up is surprise and toppled over. There was someone in the bench. How did she not notice? 

“Had a nice trip?” The other person asked, chuckling to themselves. 

Wait.  
She knew this person. 

As she lay there awkwardly on the ground, the dim streetlights and the stars illuminated this person- this girl'a face made it look like she had this heavenly glow. 

“What are you doing here at this time, Dekomori?”  
Nibutani got up and dusted herself, and looked at the other girl, surprised. Dekomori was wearing Pj’s that had cute duck patterns all over them, and had slippers on. She was hugging her legs and was looking up at the sky. Well not actually looking, her eyes were closed. And somehow, she looked calm. Actually calm. 

If anything, Nibutani was taken aback. Of the two years she knew dekomori, she never looked like this. She sat down next to her, looking up at the stars. 

“I said, what are you doing here at this time, dekomori?” Nibutani repeated, assuming that she hadn’t heard her. 

Dekomori’s eyes fluttered open slowly, and she looked up at Nibutani. If she was suprised to see her she didn’t she it. Her eyes looked heavy and tired, Nibutani noted.

“I heard you the first time. I was hoping you’d not ask again,” The younger girl sighed before continuing “for I do not know myself.” 

Nibutani realised that her she didn’t speak in chuunibyou. It was still present, but not as much as normally. 

“What are you doing here?” Dekomori asked in a serene tone, breaking the train of thoughts Nibutani had.

“Looking for my cat.” Nibutani replied monotonously. “Have you seen him by the way?” Dekomori shook her head slowly. 

Nibutani sighed. But she didn’t get up. Usually, she’d find Dekomori annoying and grab the first mention of not being anywhere near her, but this felt different. Comfortable. 

“The starts are pretty, dont you think?” Dekomori asks, reaching out one hand to the stars as if she could grab them. “The stars are so pretty.” She says. 

Nibutani looks up. Obviously the stars were pretty. She opens her mouth to reply but dekomori inturrpets her.

“But what about the sun? The sun is what illuminates the starts so we can see them. Without the sun, the stars wouldn’t have their glow.” Dekomori looked at Nibutani before continuing and Nibutani realised that she looked tired. Really tired. “We don’t usually associate the sun with bueaty, right? I mean, it could kill you if you went to close. But without the sun, we wouldn’t even know the stars exist.” 

Dekomori sighed. “What if the stars never wanted the light in the first place?” Dekomori closed her eyes and chuckled. “This doesn’t make any sense. Sorry.” 

“No it does.” Nibutani retaliates. “Kinda” Dekomori looks at her, visibly interested in what she had to say. “The sun I guess, in a way, forces the stars to shine. It’s not their fault they’re reflective. I guess the stars don’t have that in control. But did you know that some stars are hotter than the sun at their core? If they want, they can burn as high as the sun too.” Of course that was false. Stars couldn’t think leave alone do what they wanted. Nibutani snorted and turned to Dekomori once again. 

She was smiling. 

The purest of smiles you could see on earth. A smile that was powerful enough to stop world wars, a power so heart warming that you could probably get heart burn. 

Nibutani sharply looked away and shook her head, hoping to also shake the thoughts that popped into her head.  
There was a rustle in the bushes. Suddenly, a black cat jumped out. It purred and hopped into Nibutani’s lap. 

“There you are, you little rascal, I swear to god you are in so much trobule after we get home.” Nibutani scolded, earning a small laugh from the girl beside her. She smiled. 

She got up and turned to face Dekomori. “Well then, I’ll be off. You should probably get some sleep too. I mean, we do have school tomorrow.” “Today.” Dekomori corrected and stood up slowly. She sighed sadly. “Hey now, remember the stars are still going to be there tomorrow. Don’t be that sad about leaving them.” Nibutani teased. Dekomori looked suprised for a second but smiles and replies “Are you going to be here though?” Nibutani stared for a second. There was no way Dekomori was upset because she had to leave Nibutani. Never the less, she assures her “Yeah, sure. I mean tomorrow is a Friday, we can all come if you’d like.” Disappointment flashed on Dekomori’s face, only to be followed by small smile. “Yeah, that would be nice.”  
~~~~

While exiting the park, she held Shiro up to her face so that he was eye level. He mewed. “Listen, I would be more angry at you, but I just witnessed on of the best smiles in history so I’m going easy on you for this one.” She hugs the cat and whispers “Thank you.” 

She should go the park at four am more often.


	2. Dekomori’s got daddy issues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just establishing a backstory

Dekomori loved to impress. 

As a kid, she was instantly put into more clubs and classes than she could count, but she didn’t mind because she liked coming home smiling and bragging to her father and mother that she had mastered yet another skill. 

She loved how proud they were. They gave her ice-cream and always brought up her achievements during conversations with other parents. She loved to be the center of conversations. 

But unfortunately, the expectations grew too. Soon, it wasn’t impressive enough. Words of encouragement turned into harsh criticism, which turned to straight disappointment. Her father would always frown. “That’s not good enough. Do you think just that’s will help you survive?” 

But Dekomori didn’t give up. She worked and worked. But not for her father, for her mother. She would always be on dekomori’s side. Always supporting. Still encouraging whatever she did. 

Then one day, the crash happened. A truck slammed straight into her mother’s car, killing her and the driver instantly. 

That’s when Dekomori realised, the world is mean. 

If she thought her dad was cold before, she had no idea what was I store. She would receive lectures and silent treatments that would last for days, especially if she disappointed academically. But Dekomori didn’t give up. She strived and was awarded many awards regarding academic excellence. But that wasn’t enough. 

Soon, it was a race against herself. But not a normal race, somewhat like a swimming race. If you stop for too long you drown. You have to allocate time for your breath or you suffocate. But how long before you get tired? You have to stop eventually. 

That’s when it happend. She tumbled upon a website where people spoke in the strangest of ways of the weirdest of things. It was funny how comforting the words written there were. Soon, she started speaking and thinking like them. Living in escapism. She made many friends. Her favourite two: Mori Summer and one Wicked Lord Shingan. Mori Summer disappeared after a while but Dekomori assumed it was because she had dedicated her life to finding the “true meaning”. She aspired to be like her. 

And now, she smiled more than ever. And the best thing was, she smiled for herself. 

But of course, her father did not approve. “Ruins your grade” he said “You’ve become a delusional idiot.”

But Dekomori did not give up. 

She proved him wrong. She got the best grades and got into a school that the one and only Wicked Lord Shingan was in (and a fake Mori Summer.) 

But as you know, that wasn’t good enough. Her father gave her the coldest treatment yet. Left the house for days on ‘business trips’ and left Dekomori in the hands of her body guard, who’d come around every two days, and check up if she’s doing fine. And she was. Everything was going alright.

And the world was still mean. 

Her dad was found to be running a fraud campaign in his million dollar business company. It wasn’t a huge problem to silence the media and the people who accused him, but it still got some dirt on one of the highest earning CEOs in Japan.

He took a break and returned home. Dekomori almost forgot how it felt to be such a disappointment. Reminded again and again on how her chuunibyou was dragging her down and she wasn’t doing enough in school.

And this, the feeling of suffocation arrived again, so familiar it felt as it was never gone. 

But Dekomori didn’t give up. 

She kept going, trying her best to keep everything as normal as possible. But too many things were happening. Her head was full of thoughts and they were just too loud.

So headed where she and her mom liked to go when she was little and innocent with no troubles. 

She looked up at the stars. Her mom was one of them now. She was tired. And most of all,

She was ready to give up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to ReverseFranz, read your comment and it made my day :)
> 
> These chapters loosely fit into the canon timeline, more characters will start coming in soon. This is one of the rare times there’s some kind of angst in this story. 
> 
> Thanks for sticking around to chapter two, chapter three is on it’s way!


	3. And we’re back at the park

“Master, I apologise but why are you confounded by this? This is something’s only mortals are fazed by.”

The club was lazier than ever today. Rikka and Yuuta both hunched in the corner, trying to decode their cursed math homework for the week. Dekomori was next to them, busy explaining that they were ‘Pathetic weaklings who could not manage to muster the art of the devil’s tongue.’ 

Nibutani tried her best to keep balance between the frustration of Dekomori and the confusion between Rikka and Yuuta. 

“So you’re telling me that all the working out is wrong because we forgot to carry the one?”

“Exactly, Dark Flame master, I do not know how one can ignore the smallest of details in deciphering this code. You obviously haven’t practiced.” 

“Guys, it’s just math. Stop getting so riled up about it. It annoying me.” Sighed Nibutani. “It’s Friday. Let the math get to you Sunday or something.” 

“For once, I agree with this fake. I feel my mana depleting. I know! We should explore the recharging grounds under the holy beings of the night tonight! I am sure it would help all of this.” Dekomori vaguely pointed to everything. “Please, my brain is too tired to understand what you’re saying now. Wait, do you mean we should meet at the park?” To be honest, Nibutani was impressed how naturally she brought it into conversation. 

“Yes, that seems like a good idea. We shall pack our bags and venture under the starry sky all while recharging ourselves. Get ready Dark Flame Master!” Rikka exclaimed as she pointed to Yuuta who was now rolling his eyes. He sighed and quietly nodded his head. 

“Ok then. We’ll pack some food too and since Toka’s home, you can expect some thing fancy. We’ll see you there then.” Yuuta said as he got up and basically dragged Rikka outside the room. 

“So you were serious about that.” Nibutani muttered as she got up. Dekomori looked up at her in confusion. “I thought you were too..?” 

Nibutani chuckled and started to get up too. “Well then, see you there.” She said before walking through the club door. 

Tonight was going to be interesting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Yeah, just pull that side-Yes like that. Ok. In the count of three just put it down slowly-“ 

“Can we please just sit down and eat already?” 

Yuuta and Dekomori were trying to place the picnic plan let down on the a spot they had chosen (Rikka refused to sit down on the grass; were too many crawling things)  
Finally, they put the mat down and placed the god in the middle. “Don’t mind if I do.” Said Nibutani right before taking a piece of the bread sticks. Soon everyone was quiet, but a good quiet. They were relaxing, just being in the present. Nibutani thought this was the most peaceful she must have been all week. Or maybe except yesterday. But again, her heart did almost stop at that smile - and why was she thinking about that again.

“Hey are you ok?” Said a concerned voice next to her. She turned to see Yuuta munching on se chips. “You seem out of it.” She turned her head forward again and sighed. Rikka and Dekomori were fooling around, probably acting out a battle. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just worried about next year, that’s all.” After all, she had to pick a major to study after graduating. Yuuta hummed in agreement. They say there in tranquility for a few more minutes before -

“Master has injured herself!”   
Yuuta’s face shot up as he ran to where Rikka was. “Ah, ‘tis nothing but a scratch. My servant worries too much.” Assured Rikka getting back up again to prove her point. “Ok, I think it’s time to pack up if your guys have finished eating.” Said Yuuta in a very irritated tone. “Yeah, I agree too. I’m getting a bit sleepy.” Nibutani added. 

They all headed back and packed it up in no time. Rikka and Yuuta headed out first, Yuuta still supporting Rikka. Nibutani couldn’t help but swoon at the sight. Even though they might be dense knuckleheads, the relationship they have is to be envied of. 

“Do you think I have damaged her badly?” Nibutani turned to her side to see Dekomori fiddling with the dress she was wearing. “No, of course not. Must I remind you that Rikka almost fell if a roof. This is nothing.” Nibutani shook her head at the memory. She had felt very guilty, after all it was her who came up with that plan. “You’re right. My mater can endure the biggest of pains.” Dekomori laughed as she regained what seemed like her natural personality. “Alright then. See you later then, Fake Mori Summer!”

Nibutani took this opportunity to walk slowly and enjoy the stroll. She felt like the sleep was fully knocked out of her. The beauty of the park in the night was truly amazing. She would live here if that wasn’t illegal. Wait was it illegal? Could she actually pull it off? Maybe if she brought some food and some-

“What kind of behaviour is this? Do you think slacking off with your fiends at night is going to help you do anything? You should be at home studying. It’s Friday, your mind is still in the mindset of school. If you can stay awake and party, you can study.” 

Nibutani heard a deep, slow voice cut through the serene air of the night. She hid behind the bushes. She felt bad for eavesdropping, but waking in on this conversation wouldn’t do any better anyway. 

“I can’t study all my life father. Besides, this was just a little picnic. Nothing that is going to bring down my grades.” Nibutani’s eyes widened. She cautiously peeked from behind the bush and what she saw only confirmed her suspicion.It was Dekomori. 

But she looked so different.

She had this annoyed look on her face and she folded her hands. Nothing like her at all. 

“I’m sleepy. Can we just go home now?” Asked Dekomori I’m a monotonous tone. The tall man stood in front of a car, who Nibutani assumed was her dad’s, held Dekomori’s shoulder. Dekomori flinched. “That is no way you speak to your father young lady.” He retracted his hand and sighed, punching his forehead. “Where did my old Dekomori go?” With that, he sat in the car. Dekomori seemed to freeze for a moment before opening the door in front and sitting down. The car drove away. 

Nibutani waited a few seconds before waking out of the park and going home. But that scene she saw had unsettled her. was she sure that was Dekomori?

Who was that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’ve realised that this doesn’t really fit into a specific timeline, so don’t look too much into the the details. Just go with the flow.   
> Please tell me if I made any mistakes with anything I’m general.
> 
> Thanks for still sticking around :)


	4. Guess what

Nibutani had been sitting in the club room for only fifteen minutes. And by this time, she had witnessed about 10 different laws being almost broken. One way to explain what was happening was...chaos. She was surprised how the room wasn’t on fire. 

Yuuta stood between Rikka and Dekomori, as if he was barrier. When his pathetic attempts to stop them from...whatever they were doing, he retreated back to where Nibutani was sitting. 

“Sometimes, I wish I had leashes to hold pull them apart.” He said while taking out his juice popper. Nibutani thought about that. “That’s a bit kinky, but I get what you mean.” Yuuta blushed after thinking about that for a second, but didn’t say anything. Nibutani kind of felt sorry for him. He cleared his throat and started sipping the juice. “Anyways, it’s good that Rikka’s not stressing over tonight. She was worried about it all morning.” Nibutani turned to him. “What happening tonight?” “Oh, didn’t I tell you? Well, Rikka and my parents are coming over for the first time to have dinner with each other. We’ve been together for sometime, and they said they would love to know each other.” 

Nibutani smiles smugly. It wasn’t her fault to feel like she helped with the progress with the relationship. 

“Hope it goes well.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rikka twiddled her thumbs nervously. She took a deep breath in, and gave out a long sigh. She wasn’t worried about her mom. More about Yuuta’s mom. She had met her before, but never as Yuuta’s girlfriend. “Hey, stop stressing out. It’s going to be fine.” Yuuta said, squeezing her shoulders. “I am not “stressing”. I am just merely thinking on how to flee the situation if things go south.” Yuuta chuckled at this. There were three knocks at the door and Rikka look at Yuuta one last time before walking toward it and opening it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So Rikka did jump off the balcony-and let me get this right-into your arms.”  
“Well, y-yes, but it wasn’t like dangerous, I made sure it was kinda safe..?” 

Rikka’s mom chuckled and turned to Rikka, who was looking down on her skirt with a deep blush on her face. Yuuta nudged Rikka and mumbled a quiet ‘help me please’. Rikka looked at home with a ‘what do you want me to do about it’ look. She slowly turned to everyone and said “It’s alright. He has surprisingly strong arms, so I didn’t get hurt.” 

All of the parents started laughing at this, and Yuuta was, quite frankly, offended. But at least it wasn’t awkward anymore. 

“Ok, that’s enough catching up. Come and eat your dinner.” Toka said, placing the plates on the dining table. Yuuta felt a sudden jab in the stomach and immediately looked to the side.  
“Hey, I didn’t budge you that hard-“  
“I love you.”

Wow, Rikka sure had her surprises. 

Yuuta’s eyes widened. But of course he didn’t hesitate. It just felt natural to say it back.

“I love you too.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nibutani wanted to punch her so bad. 

“Just a friendly reminder that murder is still illegal. Please refrain from any bodily harm if possible, considering that you’re in a place with loads of witnesses.” Yuuta said, cupping his hands around his mouth as if it was a megaphone. 

“Unfortunately, yes.” She muttered, still death glaring the junior who was looking at her with a frown from the other side of the room. She had spent almost twenty minutes sorting out all of her papers for her homework, when Dekomori decided it was the perfect time to do one of her “summonings” because “Rikka was taking too long”, and all her papers went haywire. 

She shrugged her shoulders and continued. There was nothing she could do about it anyways. “Haha, see! This is what happens if you inturrept my rituals! I wouldn’t even think that someone would have the audacity to do something like that!” Dekomori exclaimed, striking one of her poses. “Oh yes! Ive been waiting to ask, how did your dinner play out master? We’re there any attacks? Did you slay all the beasts with your glorious strength and show everyone how amazing you are? Actually, why am I even asking? Of course you did-“  
“It actually went pretty well I think. They’re trusting us enough to live at the house alone from now on. Rikka’s sister is moving back in with her mom.” 

Everyone went silent. All they did was stare at Rikka. Why? No, it wasn’t because of the living-together-news, it was how she said it. 

There was no trace of chuunibyou. 

Dekomori instantly put her hand on Rikka’s forehead. “Master, have the pheasants infected you? Are you feeling alright?” Rikka whacked away her hand and took a second before widening her eyes and gasping. She sat down and held her head in shock. “You ok?” Yuuta said dedicating his full attention to her now. She looked up and gave a pretty psychotic laugh. 

“What the hell came over me and made me speak like that?”

And that was it ladies and gentlemen. The moment when they realised and all said in unision:

“Oh my god, Rikka’s out of her chuunibyou phase.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you’re wondering why this took this long, it’s because it rewrote it fifteen fuckin times lmao 
> 
> Anyways, sorry about the delay. In this chapter there’s a little more of Rikka’s and Yuuta’s relationship. Also ode to joys ending was playing in my head while I was leading the last part, like the whole orchestra version. Anyways, hope y’all are staying safe, I’ll post the next chapter soon.  
> Byeeeee

**Author's Note:**

> Hello.  
> This is going to be a bit long. First time doing this. 
> 
> This probably won’t make that much sense, but I do plan on posting chapter two soon. So hopefully, that will kinda put the story on track. 
> 
> This is short, I’ll try to write longer chapters, but this is just to start off. Oh, and if the formatting and structure sucks, it’s because I wrote this on my phone and uploaded it straight from there. 
> 
> K, stay tuned for more  
> :)


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